Books

I have several works currently queued for development. I’ve completed a science fiction short story. Next up will be a novel about Sifa and Peter. I started development of a children’s picture book series as well.

Zeddy and Bubba are best friends. They have adventures and learn a few things about the world along the way.
Zeddy is a very squawky and active chicken. His best friend, Bubba the bear, is more laid back. Together they have adventures at places at...

Writing Skill Development Takes Precedence

I’m not pushing to complete any of my works in progress at this point. Instead, I’ve switched gears to improving my writing skills. This involves incorporating feedback (thank you, Absolute Write Forums!) back into my stories and improving the way emotions are conveyed in my stories. I’m using not only my works in progress but also snippets from my writing journal. Stay posted for more before and after examples!

Being a Plotter

Entire arguments exist on the web about writing a book by the seat of your pants (pantsters) and writing by planning the structure in advance (plotter). What I’ve found is that capturing my dreams and ideas is great as a pantster, but to write well I need to be a plotter.

So, my major ideas are now organized into a MS Word table identifying concept, premise, and M.I.C.E. quotient. A few of these I’ve developed with a synopsis as well as major setup, conflict, climax, and resolution. One or two now have heavily developed character charts.

Still reviewing my works in progress and developing better premises for my current list of ideas. Sifa and Peter is still on hold, as is Zeddy and Bubba. I’ve turned my attention to several science fiction ideas. One may work as a short story, and another fits an episodic novella concept quite well, at least at this point.

Several people touched on the same things in their comments, and those things turn out to be related to what I’m working on in my personal life. Why am I surprised?

Over-explain. I explain in too much depth and width. Anyone who knows me well knows that! And it clearly shows up in my writing

Emotional Distance. The readers don’t feel close to my characters. Since I struggle to clearly identify and express my emotions to others, it’s not surprising this showed up in my writing.

Timing. My sense of timing, of when to go in greater depth with the settings versus the moment of tension, needs work. Ha! If you know me, you know my tendency to blurt, or to say the last thing first, etc.

Lack of clarity. Sometimes the readers are left wondering “Why?” too much, especially in regard to what the character’s motivations.

The comments were by no means all negative. I’m just focusing on what’s wrong to make it better. Stay tuned!

When I say “ready,” I don’t mean I actually think my chapters are ready. I like to keep going over and over the same scenes, tweaking them and making them better. But, one does finally reach a point of diminishing returns. One does reach a point when one shows one’s baby to the world.

So, I’m ready for an avid reader or two to read the first four chapters of Sifa and Peter and tell me what he or she thinks. Researching beta-reading and identifying readers will occupy much of my administrative overhead this month.

My concept for the Zeddy and Bubba series is becoming more robust. It will consist of travel adventure stories, introducing the reader (or the listener) to a wide range of experiences and locations in this world.

The next thing? Besides revising the draft? Deciding how much conflict needs to be in each story. Right now, the stories are without much conflict, if that makes sense — almost like a travel report.

The first part, of three parts, of my novel about Sifa and Peter, is shaping up nicely. I feel like the section now builds the characters and builds up tensions for the upcoming conflicts in a decent way. I’m still struggling a bit with Laura’s story — how much to reveal about her personal tragedy in the first part. How much allusion versus specific detail should be included? How much should I unravel, or unveil, about her problems? After all, her story is not as prominent as Sifa’s, or Peter’s.

I may have finally found someone to review Peter’s work scene, someone who knows of the profession Peter has in the book. We’ll see!

In addition to writing, I’ve been doing more research into story structure.

The problem is, my story doesn’t quite fit the standard model, as each of the three character arcs is well-formed enough to have its own introduction-conflict-resolution — but not at the same points in the overall story. I think I can strengthen each character’s arc to be more of a solid story, though.

As with all writing advice, I’m going to let it sink in and discard what doesn’t apply.

I also may have too many scenes that are too short. I’ll be looking at scene structure over the next month.

Here’s an idea from my journal. Let me know what you think in the comments, Facebook, email, contact form, whatever:

Rock climber in Colorado. He watches another climber shimmy up an iced face. The other climber makes a move so fast the watcher almost doesn’t catch it. But catch it he does. It was a move impossible for a human to make.

What does an alien do when stranded on a planet not his own? When he has a long life, and needs to hide out from crowds of people? Learns how to be a mountaineer, of course. Find out how one man learns his secret.

I’ve finished my second science fiction story. Not sure I’m happy enough with it to submit it, so I’m debating whether or not to shelve it, find a second- or third-tier market for it, or keep working on rewriting it.

I had high hopes for more writing time this summer. Parenting, gardening, and purging excess stuff have really eaten up June.

However, despite limited time, I’m learning more and more about my craft. I’m starting to hone character development in my novel, and I’ve finished the first draft of a science fiction short story.

Although I do read short stories, I’ve always liked reading novels better. However, it turns out, writing short stories is fun. I’m learning how to make every sentence work, more about pacing the action, how to not complicate things. I’m looking forward to shaping and finishing the short story.

My first draft is almost complete. I’m so close I can see the light of day at the end of the tunnel. And it won’t be a train wreck! Well, only so much as first drafts are always train wrecks.

Then, it will be time to revise, and revise. I’m still not happy with Kindra’s profession. As a dynamic, assertive, no holds-barred, best friend of our protagonist, none of my job choices for her seem to fit: personal assistant to a wealthy woman, a marketing director (too close to Sifa’s profession), international spy, retail sales… maybe a nurse?

My Facebook page has more frequent posts than this website. But, Facebook lends itself well to short posts.

So, here you’ll see longer posts. You won’t see as many, but hopefully ones with more information you find interesting or useful.

I originally had a plan to post 1-3 posts a week here on this website, but I have since revised that plan.

At this point, I’d rather spend my writing time on my novel, with occasional excerpts captured in my writing journal. Maybe even kick out another short story, although I’m a bit disappointed not to hear what happened to the last one.

I’ve been taking baby steps in this writing business for the past few months. Now that the following are accomplished, I finally feel like I’m stretching out from baby steps and am now, well, toddling along.

I’ve mentioned that many of my ideas come from dreams. Earlier this year I woke up after dreaming up a setting. No full story, mind you, but just a very specific location. Here’s what I wrote up in my writing journal:

They had found a new location for their little church.
A road dead-ended into a yellow stone plaza. Around was an entire complex of made of yellow stone mortared into place hundreds of years ago.
To the west were the doors to an old little church, built into the larger complex. It was also made of yellow stone, but the thick, tall doors were made of solid dark wood smooth from the ages.

The doors were about six feet tall, but over the doors was a built-in pediment of sorts, made of the same wood, curving up and over the doors in a half-moon arching over the door. Inside the half-moon were two quarters of stained glass, small but blending in nicely over the doors. The whole entrance was about nine feet tall.

Across the courtyard to east was a tall wall, about fourteen feet tall, also mortared with yellow brick. It ran from the courtyard northwards, pacing the edge of the street for at least a block until the street cornered to the left. Southwards, the wall ended in a large archway, opening onto some greenery. A path on the other side of the walls lead north through the trees along the hilly banks of the river. The path soon curves and slopes downwards, meeting the river’s edge, water lapping peacefully.

If you continue south from the courtyard, passing the archway and enticing path by, You pass by some small rooms of the complex built into the south side of the courtyard. This part of the complex rises at least two floors above the courtyard and attaches to the southeast edge of the church, continuing along the south side of the church.

Past this narrow wing, you face directly to the south, where another, slightly wider wing of the complex has windows out onto the park on the east side, and windows out on to a small lane running north-south on the west side. The small lane is bordered on the other side by a canal.
Another courtyard of sorts faces you as you turn west. On this little section of land are several small outbuildings. The one on the right, closest to the narrow wing, is for the church building.

Now that my short story is submitted, I’m back to development on my novel about Sifa and Peter. I had already written the core scenes, so my next pass through will be adding more of the settings for each scene. I also need to develop some secondary characters in the story. Sifa’s mother may have a story more predominant than I thought.

Currently in development is a novel about family, tragedies, and falling in love. It’s about coming of age, about fears, about secrets. It’s about genetic defects and illness. It’s about love and happiness.

I’ve submitted “Out of the Blue” to a competition out of Glasgow. It’s a science fiction short story with an emphasis on medical technology. I should know by the end of next month if the story has won or has been selected for the anthology.

Here’s a small excerpt:

He inched his way over uneven terrain. The ground continued to shake as the incoming shells worked their way westward, away from the rising blood-red sun. The filters on his helm were failing; he could taste the bitter sulfur of dust on his tongue.

I’m wrapping up work on a short story for a science fiction competition. The deadline is at the end of the month, and, if all goes well, my short story may come out in an anthology the latter half of this year.

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About Me

Cindy Rae Johnson worked for Fortune 50 companies developing software for computers, unmanned interplanetary spacecraft, and aircraft. Throughout it all she pursued an avid love of reading and of dreaming up stories. Now she writes to share those stories.